Manufacturers roll out firmware updates for GeForce GTX 1070 due to memory Issue

If you own a GeForce GTX 1070, you might want to pay attention to this news-item as you could be effected. There have been some problems reported with certain GeForce GTX 1070 cards.

After further investigation it became apparant that the issues like flickering and poor memory overclocking results on the memory sub-system are graphics memory related. GeForce GTX 1070 cards fitted with Samsung memory do not have any issues, however some manufacturers have or switched towards Micron chips, and these are the culprit of the reported issues. Especially during overclocking of the graphics memory problems will appear fast with bad results like checkerboard patterns. The problem is was found in the the speed of the voltage adjustment from the low power idle P-States to support the memory voltage requirements under load. If you can keep the idle voltage above 0.800V before you apply the overclock you never see the issue.

Some users also have reported that at default configuration they noticed the occasional odd issue like flickering or experiencing graphical artifacts. Multiple brands are and could be effected. Right now most of them are working on (or already issuing) a BIOS firmware update for the graphics cards, these BIOS updates likely increase the voltage level of the GDDR5 memory. Mind you that this only effects GeForce GTX 1070 graphics cards fitted with Micron based GDDR5 memory.

I've been doing some rounds at the manufacturers with the following info (we'll update as feedback gets in). A number of manufacturers is or have been working on VBIOS updates:

The most easy way to check what brand of memory your GeForce GTX 1070 is using is to download GPU-Z and read out the memory type (click thumbnail below for an example). The reality is that Micron’s GDDR5 memory chips shouldn’t really be any weaker opposed to what the Samsung ICs are doing. All cards we tested here ate Guru3D.com got Samsung memory. It however is not uncommon for manufacturers to switch to another brand of memory, as they purchase them in SMT batches and yes, a selection in price is made but should not effect performance. Due to the fact that our samples have Samsung memory we have not been able to verify any instability.

Have you noticed any issues with your GTX 1070? If so, let us know in the comments of this news-itsem.

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Attention:
And make sure you use Afterburner or Thundermaster (needs to run in background) for Manual Fan Control, cause Bios update disables Automatic Fan Control!!!

tensai28
Senior Member

Posts: 1298
Joined: 2013-10-31

#5348275 Posted on: 10/20/2016 10:26 AM

Gigabyte: No Micron memory was used but is double checking with R&D.

I have a gigabyte gaming G1 and GPUZ is showing that I have micron memory.

jadium
Member

Posts: 59
Joined: 2005-10-10

#5348277 Posted on: 10/20/2016 10:30 AM
Hmmm interesting...i'm somehow sick of this kind of discovers, Hardware issues patched with a wonky software plug...(most of the time reducing the life expectancy of the product), With a 500€/$/£+ cards this is not acceptable anymore!!

Not sure now, I'm using an EVGA 1070 SC ACX 3.0, flagged on EVGA forum, but GPU-Z 12 see some Samsung GDDR5..., i don't want to open it to check the Chips... is GPUZ reliable enough?

The Goose
Senior Member

Posts: 2167
Joined: 2008-02-25

#5348280 Posted on: 10/20/2016 10:35 AM

gpu-z say my zotac have samsung chip but i have some flickering in mafia 3 is that memory issue too or its from the game ?

Its in the game....

Cave Waverider
Senior Member

Posts: 808
Joined: 2010-07-25

#5348281 Posted on: 10/20/2016 10:45 AM
So what does the new video card BIOS do? Loosen the timings on Micron memory? Pump more volt into it? Something else?

#5348284 Posted on: 10/20/2016 10:47 AM
I have a evga 1070 sc acx (bought like a week and a half ago) and been having some issues running firestrike with oc. Anything other than default settings would stop the benchmark after 1st test. And had some strange artefacts on few not so demanding games. So i guess it might be what was causing it. Will try to check once i get back home...

BlueRay
Senior Member

Posts: 250
Joined: 2015-11-18

#5348293 Posted on: 10/20/2016 11:13 AM
Here we go again. I hate those dirty discoveries months after a product's release. Sure this is not the 970 memory fiasco but still it's a dirty discovery hidden under the rug. Can NVIDIA stop this already with these expensive products?

Landcross
Junior Member

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#5348301 Posted on: 10/20/2016 11:34 AM

I have a gigabyte gaming G1 and GPUZ is showing that I have micron memory.

Same. I also have a Gigabyte G1 with (according to GPU-z) Micron memory.

Weecka
Senior Member

Posts: 300
Joined: 2007-12-10

#5348307 Posted on: 10/20/2016 11:50 AM

Here we go again. I hate those dirty discoveries months after a product's release. Sure this is not the 970 memory fiasco but still it's a dirty discovery hidden under the rug. Can NVIDIA stop this already with these expensive products?

I do not see the issue. It's not like they falsely advertised or something or the cards burst in flamea (*cough* samsung batteries *cough*) It is just a minor issue that can be sorted with a bsimple bios update.

geogan
Senior Member

Posts: 322
Joined: 2010-01-04

#5348311 Posted on: 10/20/2016 11:56 AM

I have a evga 1070 sc acx (bought like a week and a half ago) and been having some issues running firestrike with oc. Anything other than default settings would stop the benchmark after 1st test. And had some strange artefacts on few not so demanding games. So i guess it might be what was causing it. Will try to check once i get back home...

Isn't any card you buy such as the "superclocked" SC model already overclocked at factory nearly to as fast as it can go reliably?

If you are then trying to add even more overclocking to it, then of course the GPU overclock and any benchmark run will fail. Doubt it is anything to do with the memory.

fantaskarsef
Senior Member

Posts: 9533
Joined: 2014-07-21

#5348312 Posted on: 10/20/2016 12:00 PM

Here we go again. I hate those dirty discoveries months after a product's release. Sure this is not the 970 memory fiasco but still it's a dirty discovery hidden under the rug. Can NVIDIA stop this already with these expensive products?

The situations is a different one here. With the 970 Nvidia knew exactly what they were doing, with bad RAM batches it's actually not Nvidia's topic at all, they never even touch a card's VRAM. It's the board partner's issue. Anybody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here.

Sorry to say this, but complain about the manufaturers for using (cheaper?) not as good RAM chips, not the GPU designer that just supplies the graphics chip.